Experiences of part-time chicken farmer and the flock.
Oh the chickeny joy!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sad day

Well it finally happened. In the back of my mind, I knew it would eventually happen. I told myself I accepted the risk, that it probably would not happen for a long time, that it was just the circle of life.

Well it happened and it sucks.

My chickens wanted to free range and I let them. Now they don't want to leave the coop.

Yesterday I let them out to forage before the rains came. I had some lunch and went out to check on the birds. They were nowhere to be seen.

Then Doctor Dolittle started shouting. A large brown hawk (or owl) flew up into a tree and then casually moved away a few trees at a time until the crows came.

I found my favorite chicken, IQ, in the place where it took off. The predator had bitten off her head and eaten both her breasts. There were feathers everywhere.

We started searching the yard for survivors. Doc found three birds under the woodpile. One was disemboweled and dying. We found another under cover on the front porch. And we found Mr. Big hiding under the chicken coop.

2 comments:

I am so sorry for your loss. I know how horrible it can be- we lost one of our hens this past fall to a bird of prey. It is such a terrible thing finding one of your girls all half-eaten like that. I used to let mine free-range all the time and now I only let them out if we are home to supervise. Everyone tells you it will happen but it doesn't make it any easier to go through when it does :(